Post-it #234

Alli Antics:

Allison went through a stage of always getting into our kitchen cabinets and emptying them. This cupboard and the one under the sink, with all the cleaning products, in particular. We have since put child locks on the doors, so now she empties the drawers in a bench we have in the kitchen.

 She learned how to climb the stairs around September sometime, so she became a prisoner on a daily basis.

 Pickles! Allison sometimes loves them.

 Alli likes to talk to the cat through the screen door. She loves "thh-tts".

 One thing that Allison loves is chairs. Little chairs, or boxes, or anything near the ground that she can climb up on to sit on.

She's so fun. We love having her around.

Post-it #232

Allison is happiest when she is playing in the toilet. Seriously. My other babies never really had a fascination with the bathroom, but if the door is left open, Allison knows and takes advantage. And with 4 other kids, the door is often left open. She likes to put whole, unused, rolls of toilet paper into the toilet bowl, and I'm pretty sure removing them and sucking the water out of the drenched paper is also part of her routine. Ugh! I have to be very vigilante about keeping toilet lids down, bathroom doors closed, and a careful eye on my very busy baby.

Post-it #231

Allison LOVES to help with the dishwasher. This is way back in September, and now she doesn't get to sit on the door so much, but she still gets excited anytime the dishwasher is open.  In fact, these days she loves to help the boys unload the dishwasher by handing them one piece of silverware at a time. 

Post-it #230

In the summer we wanted to do a family bike ride, but for a certain reason we weren't able to pull Allison in the trailer behind the bike, so we came up with something else...

153rd Passage

Top Ten of 2014
I almost forgot to do my top ten of the year. This list will be in chronological order with the ten events/occasions/happenings that had the most impact on my life. They will include the good, the bad, and the in between.

1. Allison's Baby Blessing
Early in the year we had the sweet experience of having Allison receive her baby blessing. David gave her a lovely blessing and it will always be cherished.

2.Writer's Conference
In the Spring I was able to go to a writer's conference at BSU. David fully supported it and watched the kids all day, even a young baby, so I could go. I loved it. I was even briefly all fired up about being a published author again. The coolest part was meeting with a real professional editor who read part of my manuscript and gave me feedback.

3. Baseball
The three boys got to be in baseball this past Spring/summer. It took up almost every night of the week for a couple months, which got a little old, but the games were always fun to watch. The older two loved it and are super excited to play it again this year.

4. Pregnant
I believe it was May when I found out I was pregnant. We learned the baby would be due Feb. 1, and only 1 1/2 younger than Allison. We looked forward to a new baby and a sibling so close in age to Alli.

5. Cameron and Casey came home
In July my two youngest brothers returned from their two year missions to Mississippi and Tennessee, respectively. They both came home on the same day. How fun! It's great having all the family together again.

6. California
David and I had been talking about going to California every summer since we were married. We finally did! We stayed with his grandmother and went to a ton of fun places, including the beach. We made some great memories and every one loved it!

7. Miscarriage
In August I went to the doctor for a routine appointment. I was 18 weeks along and was excited to set up the ultrasound that would reveal the babies gender. But at this appointment we learned that there was not heartbeat, and that the baby had died at 16 1/2 weeks. I didn't actually miscarriage for another two months. We had a baby boy.

8. Dance
I signed Lydia up for a dance class. She loves it consistently and is always excited to go. She had a dance recital in December, which was adorable.

9. Baptism
Morgan and William turned 8 in October and got baptized early November. They both were very excited about it, and now still talk about how awesome it was and how they wish they could do it again. David baptized them both and gave William the gift of the Holy Ghost. Morgan asked his Grandpa Nelson to give him the Holy Ghost. It was a wonderful day.

10. Prison Choir
My sister is a choir director for a choir that goes and sings at 4 prisons every December for their church Christmas program. David and I were in it this year. While the practices were many and time consuming, the experience was memorable and worth repeating.

Post-it #229

One day I found Lydia like this:

Sound asleep.

Post-it #228

Just some adorableness from Alli. She loves being in things or sitting on things.

Post-it #227

This is super late, but I've got to post the first day of school pictures.

Lydia has been working in preschool and kindergarten work books. She's getting great at writing letters and numbers. She struggles with phonics, but knows the letters by sight.

 Owen is working on first grade work, but we just upgraded to a second grade book. He has really made great strides with reading and spelling, has learned new math concepts, but has a hard time with telling time.

 William is doing third grade work. He's better this year with controlling his temper when he thinks something is difficult. This year he and Morgan started writing in journals as part of school, which is something he has really enjoyed doing this year.

Morgan is also doing third grade work. He can spell some very difficult words, and can write in cursive. 

 Yay for homeschooling! It's not always fun for me, it's not always fun for them, but it's the best for all of us and we wouldn't have it any other way.

152nd Passage

Lydia had a birthday celebration at our house, too. I ended up with lots of blurry pictures. Grandma and Grandpa Nelson came to help celebrate.

The day started with streamers and candy on the door, per birthday tradition.

 And we measured her.

 That evening we had presents.

 She got a microphone.

 She was very excited about this barbie head, but really only played with it for a couple days. It's been taking up room in her bedroom ever since.

We had another cake. I'd seen the cute cupcake cakes that looked like a dress, so I tried to replicate it. I didn't have quite enough frosting, so it wasn't as filled in as I'd have liked.

She's four! Happy birthday, Lydia!

151st Passage

Lydia's birthday is Sept. 2nd. Every month we have a get together with my family usually during the first weekend of the month. During this get together we celebrate all the birthday's that will be had that month. It's a big family, so only January and April don't have birthdays. Mom always makes the favorite foods of all the birthday participants that month and children provide the cakes.
David wanted to try a fondant cake. So he did it. And when David does something it is always professional grade when it's finished.
He started by making the fondant out of marshmallows and powdered sugar, mostly.

Then he separated it and added dye.He rolled it out and carefully applied it to the cake. (I made the cake! See, I contributed!)

Cutting the ribbon...

Making the number 4...

Then we got measuring spoons and used them as cookie cutters to make little circles.

And voila! The finished product! Doesn't it look great?

So this is the cake we brought to the family celebration.
Here are some pictures of Lydia opening a gift from Grandma and Grandpa.

Here is a video. I want you to notice Chris in the background trying to photo bomb, not realizing I was filming. Also notice how adorable Lydia is. Her expressions are so cute.

Post-it #226

Allison loves drums. She loves noise. She loves music. So when she discovered Daddy's music room she was in heaven. If the door doesn't get closed all the way and she sneaks upstairs while we do school in the kitchen, I'll find her using a drum stick on the bottom of David's drum set, or trying to plink the strings of a guitar. She might take after her Daddy in the musical realm. Or not. Really, its impossible to know.

150th Passage

David's birthday was the end of August. His mom watched the kiddo's while David and I went to pick up his new wood lathe that was his present. While we were gone, Nana Sugar and the kids went to work on special fun foods for dinner for David.

David played with his new toy. He's made some pretty fun things with it.

That night we happened to have free tickets to Meridian Speedway, so we all went there. It was my first time. It was entertaining. Loud. Lot's of discourteous smokers around to choke us with their smoke and threaten our asthma, but it was fun.